Page 13 - HaMizrachi Yom HaAtzmaut 5782 USA

a bachelors student in Bar-Ilan University, including the Mizrachi
OU-JLIC on Campus initiative. Rabbi Tzvi and Tali Wohlgelernter
serve as the Mizrachi OU-JLIC directors in Givat Shmuel. Tali shares
that, like Shira Roth, most of their community members made
Aliyah for idealistic reasons. “Most of our community members
and students have already made Aliyah, which I was not expecting
to be the case when I started,” shared Tali. “The majority of our
community members are post-army and post-Sherut Leumi. Now
that there are communities where young olim feel at home, they
can more comfortably make Aliyah, knowing that there is a support
system in place. They are not alone; they are part of a growing
community, helping to build something from the ground up. They
have support, but there is also space for leadership within the
community, which is attractive to these idealistic young adults.”
Kyra Ashkenazy made the move after completing her degree at
Stern College for Women. “I always knew that I wanted to live
in Israel, but making the move alone was scary to me,” shared
Ashkenazy. “When I was at Stern College, I met with Nefesh
B’Nefesh Aliyah advisors to hear about my options and saw more
and more graduating seniors making plans to move to Israel. I
applied to masters programs in the United States but I knew that
I wanted to continue my second-degree schooling in the place
where I planned to build my home, my community and my future.
With the social support network in place and the promise of free
tuition, what was once a daunting idea became a no-brainer and
I made Aliyah after finishing my bachelors degree.” Ashkenazy
has since completed her masters in Nonprofit Management and
Leadership at Hebrew University and is currently studying in a
fully-subsidized ulpan program. She hopes to pursue a job in the
non-profit and public health fields in the coming months.
Ariana Sonsino from San Antonio, Texas, shared that she made
Aliyah because of her desire for a different culture. “I would say
that one of the reasons I made Aliyah was to break free from the
system in America in which young people feel pressured to be
on a linear path of going from high school straight to college
and immediately entering the workforce. In Israel, that isn’t the
case. Here I have the freedom to choose my next step in life every
step of the way, with no external pressures. Additionally, I found
the job search in Israel to be much more promising, at least as a
recent college grad. While in America, most employers are looking
for applicants with at least 3–5 years of experience, which most
college graduates do not have. In Israel, companies, especially
startups, are in need of native English-speaking employees, so
professional opportunities are abundant.” Ariana received her
bachelors from the University of Austin and her masters from
the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
When I began my undergraduate degree in 2010, 969 young
adults aged 18–25 made Aliyah from North America. The numbers
climbed steadily until 2016, when 1,164 young adults made Aliyah.
The numbers evened out for a while, had an understandable
slight decline due to Covid, but are back on the rise again. With
growing Anglo communities, tuition incentives, and a wealth of
job prospects, Israel is an increasingly attractive option for young
professionals beginning their adult lives.

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